Baseball Development AMA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a question for anyone familiar with LL draft rules. We are brand new to an area, went to the LL tryouts, and son was assigned to a Minors team, not Majors. He's almost 11 and has been playing club for years.

Checked out the Minors practice only to find little kids who could barely throw or catch and the Coach wondered why son wasn't on a Majors team. Coach thinks it's too dangerous for him to play with such little and inexperienced kids. League says draft is final and teams are full (not true) and won't reconsider.

What we think happened is all the Majors passed on him b/c they don't know him even when son smoked all the other kids at his tryout who made the Majors.

What gives? Is this typical for LL for coaches to only pick certain kids and blackball newcomers? Should we just stick to club?

Oh yuck. I’m so sorry! I think what happens, is coaches go with the “known” player and possibly don’t take tryouts into account as much. And since your son is new....they didn’t take a chance on him even though he had a great tryout. That is really a shame. Hopefully once word gets around, he will me moved up to Majors. As someone else said, there is sure to be an injury or someone will drop out. Hopefully he can pitch etc and be a star in the Minors in the meantime. Surely he will make All Stars too? I’d aim for that- then he will be playing with Majors kids. Little League is such a mixed bag. Ultimately I feel coaches want to win (especially in All Stars) but seems to take forever for “new kids” to overcome pre existing bias. As you know, LL is pretty irrelevant in the long run.

Thanks, that is what happened. The league has been shady with us so we don't want to be part of it. Insisted all the Majors teams were "full" at 11 kids each when their rules states teams can be up to 13. And they said "no changes" are made after draft, decisions are FINAL. And when we said we probably would drop out our Minors coach started bugging us to give an answer ASAP because some other kid wanted to be on his team . So much for "no changes!" The league has shown us that they aren't our kind of people. Too many egos, politics, and cliques. Since we plan to move in the next year, there isn't a point in sticking it out since we won't be eligible by address next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, that is what happened. The league has been shady with us so we don't want to be part of it. Insisted all the Majors teams were "full" at 11 kids each when their rules states teams can be up to 13. And they said "no changes" are made after draft, decisions are FINAL. And when we said we probably would drop out our Minors coach started bugging us to give an answer ASAP because some other kid wanted to be on his team . So much for "no changes!" The league has shown us that they aren't our kind of people. Too many egos, politics, and cliques. Since we plan to move in the next year, there isn't a point in sticking it out since we won't be eligible by address next year.

You need to call the league out on this. Majors teams are capped at 12 players each per LL rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, that is what happened. The league has been shady with us so we don't want to be part of it. Insisted all the Majors teams were "full" at 11 kids each when their rules states teams can be up to 13. And they said "no changes" are made after draft, decisions are FINAL. And when we said we probably would drop out our Minors coach started bugging us to give an answer ASAP because some other kid wanted to be on his team . So much for "no changes!" The league has shown us that they aren't our kind of people. Too many egos, politics, and cliques. Since we plan to move in the next year, there isn't a point in sticking it out since we won't be eligible by address next year.

You need to call the league out on this. Majors teams are capped at 12 players each per LL rules.

I read all the rules, compared the rosters, counted all the kids, and can see they don't follow their own rules. But at this point, I wouldn't want my kid to play with them anyway, they can have their garbage league. But I resent being lied to about "rules" when they seem to pick and choose which to follow. I won't subject my kid to any of this. They have agree to issue a refund, despite the rules saying "NO REFUNDS" so we're just going to take our money and run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, that is what happened. The league has been shady with us so we don't want to be part of it. Insisted all the Majors teams were "full" at 11 kids each when their rules states teams can be up to 13. And they said "no changes" are made after draft, decisions are FINAL. And when we said we probably would drop out our Minors coach started bugging us to give an answer ASAP because some other kid wanted to be on his team . So much for "no changes!" The league has shown us that they aren't our kind of people. Too many egos, politics, and cliques. Since we plan to move in the next year, there isn't a point in sticking it out since we won't be eligible by address next year.

You need to call the league out on this. Majors teams are capped at 12 players each per LL rules.

I read all the rules, compared the rosters, counted all the kids, and can see they don't follow their own rules. But at this point, I wouldn't want my kid to play with them anyway, they can have their garbage league. But I resent being lied to about "rules" when they seem to pick and choose which to follow. I won't subject my kid to any of this. They have agree to issue a refund, despite the rules saying "NO REFUNDS" so we're just going to take our money and run.

I am sorry that you and your child have to go through this. I look forward to hearing good things about your son's playing career one day!

[Anonymous]

Maybe they had smaller caps due to under enrollment of players?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they had smaller caps due to under enrollment of players?

This could be. They also may have smaller teams because of covid.

Our LL is forming majors teams of only 11 this year (really the smallest they can get away with at that level).

Also; LL levels and who plays where, is often a numbers game. If, say, 90 kids try out for majors, 12 to a team, the league could do 5 teams (60), 6 teams (72) or 7 (84). The number of teams/move ups etc often depends how many 12s there are, how many qualified coaches, and frankly the strength of the players (is there enough skill- especially pitching- to have 7 teams and not dilute majors play so much that it might as well be minors?). Point being, depending on the year, sometimes qualified kids are left off due to numbers and sometimes borderline kids end up making Majors to fill the end of the roster.

As an unknown player, he might have had a good tryout but the evaluations are so minimal and you can’t always tell a whole lot about a player. By the time kids are 11/12, coaches can usually refer back to last season etc and that tends to be more influential. Good players can have bad tryouts and bad players can have good tryouts. Happens all the time. My son has as 12u buddy that regularly whacks balls over the fence during BP, but is a pretty poor hitter in games (struggles with faster pitching). The reverse could also be true (kid has a poor tryout but has hit very well the last 2 LL seasons and in club ball). Some coaches would be able to spot this during a tryout but not all.

It sounds like the kid deserves to play majors and this shouldn’t have happened...but it isn’t necessarily “blackballing a kid” or anything nefarious going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they had smaller caps due to under enrollment of players?

This could be. They also may have smaller teams because of covid.

Our LL is forming majors teams of only 11 this year (really the smallest they can get away with at that level).

Also; LL levels and who plays where, is often a numbers game. If, say, 90 kids try out for majors, 12 to a team, the league could do 5 teams (60), 6 teams (72) or 7 (84). The number of teams/move ups etc often depends how many 12s there are, how many qualified coaches, and frankly the strength of the players (is there enough skill- especially pitching- to have 7 teams and not dilute majors play so much that it might as well be minors?). Point being, depending on the year, sometimes qualified kids are left off due to numbers and sometimes borderline kids end up making Majors to fill the end of the roster.

As an unknown player, he might have had a good tryout but the evaluations are so minimal and you can’t always tell a whole lot about a player. By the time kids are 11/12, coaches can usually refer back to last season etc and that tends to be more influential. Good players can have bad tryouts and bad players can have good tryouts. Happens all the time. My son has as 12u buddy that regularly whacks balls over the fence during BP, but is a pretty poor hitter in games (struggles with faster pitching). The reverse could also be true (kid has a poor tryout but has hit very well the last 2 LL seasons and in club ball). Some coaches would be able to spot this during a tryout but not all.

It sounds like the kid deserves to play majors and this shouldn’t have happened...but it isn’t necessarily “blackballing a kid” or anything nefarious going on.

Yes to all this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they had smaller caps due to under enrollment of players?

This could be. They also may have smaller teams because of covid.

Our LL is forming majors teams of only 11 this year (really the smallest they can get away with at that level).

Also; LL levels and who plays where, is often a numbers game. If, say, 90 kids try out for majors, 12 to a team, the league could do 5 teams (60), 6 teams (72) or 7 (84). The number of teams/move ups etc often depends how many 12s there are, how many qualified coaches, and frankly the strength of the players (is there enough skill- especially pitching- to have 7 teams and not dilute majors play so much that it might as well be minors?). Point being, depending on the year, sometimes qualified kids are left off due to numbers and sometimes borderline kids end up making Majors to fill the end of the roster.

As an unknown player, he might have had a good tryout but the evaluations are so minimal and you can’t always tell a whole lot about a player. By the time kids are 11/12, coaches can usually refer back to last season etc and that tends to be more influential. Good players can have bad tryouts and bad players can have good tryouts. Happens all the time. My son has as 12u buddy that regularly whacks balls over the fence during BP, but is a pretty poor hitter in games (struggles with faster pitching). The reverse could also be true (kid has a poor tryout but has hit very well the last 2 LL seasons and in club ball). Some coaches would be able to spot this during a tryout but not all.

It sounds like the kid deserves to play majors and this shouldn’t have happened...but it isn’t necessarily “blackballing a kid” or anything nefarious going on.

Yes to all this.

We met with the Minors coach at the first practice and he agreed to have a 1:1 with son a few days later to see for himself if he would make a recommendation to the league. Afterwards, he did recommend to the league that he thought son should be in Majors, the league refused to budge. They didn't really offer a reason other than "the teams are set". The vibe really seemed "you can't sit with us" and we ultimately just felt unwelcome and decided to leave. Incidentally my son was player #12 on his roster, so teams did go up to 12 and not just 11, so the "no room" excuse just doesn't fly. Some leagues/teams just aren't going to be a good fit as we found out. Son already tried out and made a travel team so he will be plenty busy with baseball this spring, just not with a LL team.

[Anonymous]

You said AMA, so....my 14 year old son pitches and I’d like him to wear a cup. He says it is personal choice at this point and some pitchers wear one and some don’t. Clearly it’s a different story for catchers. The coaches on his team haven’t ever said anything about cups, one way or another. Any high school coaches or parents of high schoolers want to weigh in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You said AMA, so....my 14 year old son pitches and I’d like him to wear a cup. He says it is personal choice at this point and some pitchers wear one and some don’t. Clearly it’s a different story for catchers. The coaches on his team haven’t ever said anything about cups, one way or another. Any high school coaches or parents of high schoolers want to weigh in?

Parent of HS player. Don't force the cup at this age. The bigger risk is a ball to the head or heart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You said AMA, so....my 14 year old son pitches and I’d like him to wear a cup. He says it is personal choice at this point and some pitchers wear one and some don’t. Clearly it’s a different story for catchers. The coaches on his team haven’t ever said anything about cups, one way or another. Any high school coaches or parents of high schoolers want to weigh in?

Parent of HS player. Don't force the cup at this age. The bigger risk is a ball to the head or heart.

Ah! Another thing to worry about!

[Anonymous]

Are chest protectors for pitchers becoming more common? I see them in stores all the time. Do they really prevent cardiac arrest or whatever if hit in the chest?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are chest protectors for pitchers becoming more common? I see them in stores all the time. Do they really prevent cardiac arrest or whatever if hit in the chest?

OP here. Yes I do think they’re important but I can’t confirm they’ll prevent Cardiac Arrest. G- Form makes a great protector that I highly recommend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are chest protectors for pitchers becoming more common? I see them in stores all the time. Do they really prevent cardiac arrest or whatever if hit in the chest?

OP here. Yes I do think they’re important but I can’t confirm they’ll prevent Cardiac Arrest. G- Form makes a great protector that I highly recommend.

This is the brand we use too. It’s all one piece. Wash inside out and air dry.

We also have an Evoshield one that has 3 inserts (1 chest and 2 back) that mold to the body. Just need to remember to remove the inserts before washing the shirt.

[Anonymous]

Thought I’d revive now that baseball is back!